Stealing is a Crime
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Jenny Moxham
February 2016

Isn't it time we opened our eyes and recognized that stealing from every body is a crime?

Stealing is a crime. We don't even dispute this fact because we instantly recognize that taking something that doesn't belong to us is wrong.

Despite knowing this and recognizing that it's wrong to take what belongs to another most of us steal every single day.

"Not me," you say.

But,do you drink cows' milk?

Every day the majority of us consume cows milk yet we have no more right to steal milk from cow mothers than we have to steal milk from human mothers. Cows produce milk for the very same reason as humans - to feed their new born babies. But it is what we do next that makes this theft so particularly abhorrent. We steal the mothers precious new born babies and then violently and brutally slaughter them.

These sweet, vulnerable youngsters are casually and callously killed simply because we enjoy the taste of their baby milk even though we have no need of it. The theft of their babies causes the mothers enormous distress and grief yet we force them to endure this cycle year after year.

But our practice of stealing "breast" milk is not confined to bovines. We also steal milk from mother sheep, goats and camels.

Another thing we routinely steal is hens' eggs but, again, it's not just the stealing that makes this theft so despicable. It's the manner in which we treat these hens and the intolerable life to which we subject them. We burn off their sensitive beaks with lasers or red hot blades and we imprison them in small, uncomfortable wire cages in which they are constantly feather pecked by their half-crazed "cell mates."

As if this isn't bad enough we rob them of sunshine, fresh air and all semblance of a natural life and force them to breathe ammonia laden air that burns their eyes and lungs.

We also steal from sheep. Believe it or not, a sheep's fleece is actually there
for a reason. It protects sheep from the elements and in the first month after shearing thousands of sheep quite literally freeze to death. But we don't steal their wool simply to keep ourselves warm. We turn it into all manner of frivolous and unnecessary items such as carpets, car seat covers, tennis ball covers and liners for hanging baskets.

We steal from ducks and geese too. We pluck out their feathers and down - a very painful process which results in tears to the skin - and we stuff them into our parkas, sleeping bags and pillows. We repeat this process every 6-7 weeks before eventually slaughtering the hapless birds.

Because we like the look of fur we also steal from foxes, mink, chinchilla rabbits and many more animals including dogs and cats. In China many dogs are still gasping and blinking after their skin has been peeled off and they are tossed onto the rubbish pile. Fifty million animals currently suffer and die as victims of the international fur trade

In addition to this we steal honey from bees, and silk from silkworms. To obtain the latter the silkworm is cruelly boiled to death. Finally, of course, we rob all farmed animals of their precious lives.

Isn't it time we opened our eyes and recognized that stealing from every body is a crime?

---

Return to The Meat and Diary Industries
Read more at Animal Rights Articles